Please see this link for detailed growing tips: Growing Garlic
We strongly encourage you to follow as many of the recommendations as possible to properly nourish your garlic and reduce the likelihood of disease issues such as rust.
White Southern Softneck Garlic
White Southern Softneck is an early-producing garlic that has proven to be highly productive. Customers growing it in rust-prone gardens have reported excellent results, making it one of our favourite garlic varieties for New Zealand conditions.
This treasured heritage garlic originates from the collection of Henry Harrington, one of New Zealand’s foremost seed savers. His ancestors were among the early French settlers of the Akaroa Peninsula, and this garlic has been passed down through generations.
We feel honoured to continue growing and sharing this special variety at KoruKai Herb Farm on Banks Peninsula, helping preserve an important piece of local gardening history.
Planting & Storage Information
Each bag contains 10 individual seed garlic cloves ready for planting.
We highly recommend planting in April to help minimise rust pressure and encourage strong establishment before winter.
Please note:
- The bulbs have already been broken into cloves for planting convenience
- Once separated, cloves do not store particularly well
- Plant as soon as possible after receiving them
If your garden bed is not yet ready, we recommend temporarily planting the cloves into pots and transplanting them later once your soil preparation is complete.
How we grow our garlic
At KoruKai Herb Farm we grow 1000 garlic bulbs each year using regenerative and organic growing methods.
Our garlic is grown in beds which had a diverse cover crop grown in them.
The soil is enriched with:
- High-quality compost and vermicast
- Autumn leaves
- Wood chips and organic matter
Before planting, the cloves are soaked in fungal-rich compost and vermicast extract to support healthy microbial life and strong root development.
We strive to produce high-quality garlic for both seed and culinary use. However, growing garlic successfully depends on many environmental and management factors, so we cannot guarantee results in every garden.
Careful soil preparation, balanced fertility, good airflow, proper timing, and healthy biology all play important roles in producing a successful garlic crop. We have written a blog about growing great garlic. Please read and apply as much of the recommendations as you can to feed it properly and reduce the chance of disease.
Here a few photos of the growing process at KoruKai Herb Farm, where we grow 1000 bulbs each year.
Cloves are grown in soil enriched with compost, autumn leaves and wood chips. We soak them in fungal rich compost extract for 24 hours before planting.
A beneficial fungal dominant compost extract is being sprayed on the crop 5 times over the spring period to feed the crop, enhance beneficial fungi and outcompete rust. A nice looking fungal strand under the microscope in the image below.
Crop is looking great in November. Kai is applying liquid fertiliser with trace elements and biologicals.
At harvest time in January, the crop is plaited and hung for curing for 4-8 weeks before selecting the seed cloves and replanting them in April.
